Metal Bones
by rainstripe
Summary: Edward Elric is thrown into the world of Bones, what will happen when he runs into some not so friendly familiar faces? Will continue to be updated, just a bit slower due to school work.
1. Found

I do not- and will now (unfortunately and thankfully) nor ever own Bones or Fullmetal Alchemist.

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><p>The pain screamed, pushing away everything else, every thought, every feeling, nothing remained to stand against the hurricane ripping him apart.<p>

"Has the little chibi finally had enough, or shall I continue?", the sneering words cut through the fog encasing his senses reminding him of what he had to do, and who he needed to save, who he needed to get back to.

He launched himself forward, ignoring the screams ripping through his already broken body, clenching the makeshift knife in his hand, shoving it into the chest of his captor. He felt the knife catch, and he forced it further, making sure that this would kill the beast. With this final mark, his body shut down, refusing to let him push it any further, or endure any more pain.

"Ha, you think you can kill me with a little chip of wood, do you little alchemist, do you huh?", with each breath he slammed his foot into the side of his prey, cackling with glee when he heard his ribs cracking under the strain. With that, he left.

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><p>"Caucasian male, approximately 5'5'', a wound to the chest, most likely the cause of death, late teens early twenties.", Brennan rambled of the statistics like they were nothing, casting glances at the remains.<p>

"Factoring in the heat and humidity, combined with the rate of decomp, he's only been dead a week, possibly a week and a half", Hodgins stated quickly.

Mr. Nigel Murray slid in between them, snapping quick pictures of the crime scene, catching the hole left in the chest of the man, and the makeshift knife made from a chunk of wood that had been flung to the side, obviously ripped from the chest of the man by the man himself, just to get it out of the way.

"WHAT THE HELL!", yelled Booth from the corner, shocking everyone upright, their eyes all flying to where he was standing. " Um, Bones? I think this might strike your interest..."* Bon... uh Brennan quickly scurried over to where he was, her eyes quickly locking onto the metal limbs that were buried in the corner just barely visible beneath the dirt.

"Hodgins! Come bag these, you'll want to pull particulates off them later" nearly shrieked Brennan. You could see the horror written clearly across her features, shocking everyone around her, a 180 degree turn from her typical crime scene persona.

'I can't... can't give up... have to get...get back to al, can't die... not yet'

"Booth, what was that? I didn't quite catch what you were saying" pestered Brenan, already on edge from the metal arm and leg, still glinting with each flash of the camera.

"What do you mean Bones? I didn't say a thing", muttered Booth, still perturbed by what was going on, his mind still trying to wrap around what was going on. The murders still horrified him, both with the stench and the gut retching way that most of these bodies had not only died, but rotted beyond recognition.

"Everyone shut up!" shouted Brenan, "Listen! I heard someone, there might be another victim!" With that every noise shut down, the entire room froze, listening for any sound, anything at all that might give them a clue to what Dr. Brenan had heard.

'Dam... Damn it Envy! You sure as hell better be... better be dead for this! This short string of words were not lost on the people in the small room, and they only further shocked everyone into silence, and launched them all into action, searching for anywhere that the noise could be coming from.

Brennan slid to her knees, her fist lightly knocking against the wood, slowly sliding along the wall, each thud causing her heart to drop lower and lower in her chest, until a hollow 'thunk' resounded around the room, drawing every eye, ear, and attention immediately.

"Booth!" Brennan once again started yelling "Come over here, I need your help to pry this door open!" Booth shot over to the hidden door, reaching over and hooking his nails into the small space in between the edge of the door and the wall. His muscles strained as he slowly slid open the door, revealing the horror that had been safely hidden within.

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><p>(Where the opening would be if this were an actual Bones episode )<p>

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><p>What was revealed shocked everyone. A boy, around 14 years old, surrounded by, no covered in what seemed like a sea of blood, there was no movement, and the only sign of life was his chest heaving with each breath, and the loud sucking of air accompanied with that. He was propped against the wall, his shirt missing entirely, revealing his chest littered with cuts, some still leaking blood onto the floor around him.<p>

Brennan sprinted to his side, closely followed by Booth. "Someone call 911!" were the first words uttered in what seemed like an eternity, and it seemed like another until someone reacted. Brennan carefully brushed blood crusted hair away from his face, muttering words to try and calm herself from the horror that was quickly closing in around her.

Her eyes finally locked onto something that she should have noticed from the beginning, "Booth" was all she could strain out, pointing to his right arm, or more correctly, where his right arm should have been. Both of their eyes slid down to his legs, widening with the ever growing horror that his leg was missing as well. A thick chain wrapped around his remaining leg sufficiently trapping him in the small room.

Within seconds, paramedics were there, bringing a slight relief to what felt like an ocean trying to smother her. The chain was snapped quickly, and the boy loaded into the ambulance, an IV and blood drip already started, Brennan felt herself pulled into the vehicle, not knowing or particularly caring why. With that, the sirens screamed, declaring that they were on their way.

All that they could do was pray.


	2. Q&A

Ed's POV

Antiseptic was the first thing to hit him as he awoke, the horrible smell of hospitals. His mind reeled, trying to remember why he was in this horrible place once again, was it yet another pointless mission from Mustang, or maybe another dead end lead to the Philosopher's sto... no, the memory hit him like a ton of bricks.

He cursed himself, again and again, praying that he was wrong as the images flitted through his head, Teacher, Hoenhime, Mustang, and finally, the torn apart armor of his brother, the blood seal ripped to pieces before his eyes.

He remembered the gate, Truth, saying something... but what? Waking up in a sea of blood, and a world of pain, greeted by none other than Envy. His last thoughts trailed off to where he shoved the hunk of wood into Envy's chest, praying that it would kill him.

His eyes flitted open, only to be greeted by the blinding white that normally accompanied hospitals. His eyes locked onto a lone woman, sitting just across the room. He knew her, why couldn't he recognize her? He wracked his brain, trying to make sense of all the nonsense that was bombarding him.

Brennan POV

The boy groaned, startling her out of her thoughts, she sat up quickly hoping that he was alright. He slowly slid into a sitting position, the pain heavily masked, but evident on his face. She shot to her feet, rushing over to him. She reached out a hand to help him, but he quickly jerked away from her, distrust written across his features.

He looked himself over, as if taking account of what was there. She ducked away, realizing how distressed he would be when he realized his arm and leg were missing.

Ed's POV

It hit me very quickly, noticing that for some reason, my automail had been removed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the woman flinch away, as if I would be... oh... most kids are alarmed when they see that they're missing an arm and leg.

It was at that exact moment that a man choose to walk in, quickly followed by another, much younger man. The first distinctly reminded him of Mustang, war hardened, in a position of power, and not afraid to use it. The other looked like he had never seen war in his life, with a gaze that seemed to be taking him apart, piece by piece.

"Alright, I have a few questions for you concerning your presence at the crime scene, and I would appreciate it if you would work with me and my partner-" he quickly stated, I was sure now, he was exactly like Mustang, quick and to the point entirely.

"I'm afraid I work on the basis of equivalent exchange, ergo, for every question I want an answer back," I cut him off with, not wanting to go through all of the military crap yet again. He enjoyed the startled stares he got back from all three of the people in the room.

"Well then, we should get started then, first of all, what is your name, and how old are you?" An obvious question, but the typical one to start an interrogation with. His answer was quick and to the point, easily combined with his questions for them, " My name is Edward Elric, I am 17 years old, and who are you, and where am I?"

"Wow, I thought you were much-" Booth was cut off almost instantly by, " If you finish that sentence I will kill you myself."

Brennan quickly cut in with, " I am Dr. Temperance Brennan, and this is my partner, Seeley Booth, and you are in Blessed Heart* hospital, in Washington D.C., Maryland." The next questions and answers rolled around the room much like a pinball in the machine.

"Why were you at the crime scene, and what are the names of your parent or guardian?"

"The guy grabbed me, beat the shit out of me, and then I ended up here, I don't have one, what year is it, and where the hell is my automail?"

"So wait, you have no parents or guardians, and the guy just grabbed you?", this came from the younger man that was standing forgotten behind Booth, "Oh, yes by the way, my name is Dr. Sweets."

"Well, yes, the guy kinda hated me before, and, I've been on the road with my brother for a few years, trying to get back something we had lost.", I explained, obviously showing my preference of not going into any sort of details about my answers, "also, is there any way I could get out of here?"

This time Booth got to answering before Sweets could interrupt again, " The year is 2011, and what is automail? Wait, do you mean the metal limbs that we found outside the room you were in?"

My mind reeled as I tried to piece together what had happened, a different world, fine, but how the hell did I end up almost 100 years in the future? I tried to cover my confusion by answering his question as quickly as I could muster, " Yes, I believe that would be it, but it's actually a carbon fiber, rather than the typical steel that I normally have. Since it is mine, is there any way that I could get it back?"

"It is currently at the lab, but I think we could take you there if you have no more need for medical treatment, and can be released from the hospital. Although I have one last question for you", Booth paused, as if trying to fit together the words to say " Did you kill that man?"

I decided against lying, and saw only one answer that probably wouldn't bite me in the ass later, so I simply stated what was running through my head. "Whoa, you mean that he's actually dead?, in that case, the my answer is yes, I did kill that conniving son of a bitch."

I could see the looks of horror cross all of their faces, and Booth quietly walked out of the room without another word, probably to go find a doctor to see how soon they could ship me off to the nearest jail. Brennan slowly slid out after him, quickly followed by Dr. Sweets. I was left alone at last, giving me time to figure out what the hell had happened to me.

Brennan POV

I couldn't believe it, i just could not believe that he had murdered that man, my mind refused to process that that could happen, and I cast a helpless look to Dr. Sweets, " So, Sweets, what did you get from him?" Booth asked as he walked towards us.

"He was very protective, his answers were measured, as if he had done this kind of thing before, he was also obviously shocked by what year it was, pointing towards a long time in captivity, but what is confusing is how he knew his age, but not the year, he also seemed confused by his location, pointing to a switch in locations. He has had a large amount of trauma in the past, and in no way wants to go over it with other people. He is also well acquainted with the victim, with a rather large hate between the two of them, as well as being rather protective of his brother, from the was his expression changed when he talked about him. I believe that's all I managed to gather from our questioning of him. " Somehow, Sweet's managed to get this all out in a single breath.

"Well-" "He also answered much like I would expect from a military man, like you Booth." Sweets cut in before Booth could say anything of any meaning.

"The doctor said that he could leave, he sustained a large amount of blood loss, along with several broken ribs, but by some miracle, there was no internal bleeding." Booth breathed out, before realizing what Sweets had said, " You mean this kid has had military training? There is no way that that is even possible Sweets!" "I never said that specifically, but that is what all of the markers are pointing to at this time."

I cut them both off before they could get ahead of themselves," The doctor said we could take him, so i guess that means we take him to the lab to get his automail. After that, we can figure it out as we go."

They both agreed, not wanting to face the subject either, Booth left to go sign all of the paperwork to get him out, as Sweets and I went to go wait for him inside Edward's room. Edward didn't acknowledge us as we walked into the room, obviously lost deep in thought about who knows what.

It seemed like ages before Booth came back into the room, closely followed by a nurse pushing a wheel chair down the hall. It was only during this where Edward actually looked up, just now realizing that we were there.

Ed's POV

I still wasn't sure on how in the hell I ended up in the wrong time, the wrong world? Sure, it made sense, it was good payment, and hopefully it was enough to give Alphonse back his body. I was seated in a car, much more advanced than the ones I had seen in Amestris, but I was sure not to gawk, afraid it would draw more attention to me. The world flew by, every light streaking across my vision, everywhere I looked, there was something new, more advanced than any technology I had ever seen in Amestris, or anywhere for that matter.

My eyes slowly slid shut, everything that had happened rushing up, pulling me down, lulling me into sleep.


	3. Truth and Automail

Truths Gate

The world was white, like an empty sheet of paper, reaching far beyond his vision. Only one thing stood against the endless white backdrop, an immense gate, a large tree sketched into the marble. A lone figure stood, a shadow cast around his edges, the only difference between the white of his body and the world surrounding him. He was not all white however, his right arm and left leg were flesh, looking horribly mismatched in comparison to the rest of his body.

"Truth", a boy growled out, sliding into the world. His torso was covered in bandages, dried blood still apparent on a few of them. He took a single step forward, only to fall to the ground, his left leg missing, unable to support himself, he pushed himself up, somehow managing to slid up into a kneeling position with just his left arm.

_"Oh mister al-che-mist" _Truth sang as he trotted over_. "I have found a way for you to pay off your debt!"_

The boy could only guess at what Truth meant, "What debt Truth! I traded my alchemy for Alphonse's body! Was that not enough?", he demanded.

_"I would have thought I would offer you a deal, alchemist." _Truth pondered_, "But if you would rather just trade your alchemy for just him, it would be no loss to me!"_

"Wait! What was your offer, and what do you mean just my brother?", the boy pleaded.

_"Alright mister alchemist!" _The Truth exclaimed, obviously pleased with the new direction of their conversation, _"I have chosen you to entertain me, and if you do this, you can work off not only your brother's body, but your Teacher's organs, and the Colonel's eyes sight as well, you just have to deal with a few, ah, minor problems in different dimensions." _

"Wait a second Truth, what kind of problems do you mean?" The alchemist asked, pondering if he should take the deal.

_"Somehow, the sin's managed to escape from the gate before I could stop them, probably thanks to Father just before you destroyed him, and your job would be to eliminate them in each of the separate dimensions that you would be sent to, by using both your alchemic knowledge, and any skills I may give you, or you might gain." _Truth explained, waiting to see if the (small) alchemist before him would accept.

"Sure Truth, I accept.", the boy breathed out, hoping that he wouldn't regret making a deal with Truth.

The world began to fade away, deteriorating beneath the boy, and Truth watched as he fell down into the darkness below before shouting down, _"Oh, yes, and you'll have to deal with some other acquaintances of yours as well mister alchemist!"_

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><p>Earth POV<p>

The car came to a stop, jerking him (thankfully) from his just barely finished discussion with Truth, but leaving him with a sinking feeling in his stomach, causing him to wonder if he chose the right thing to do in the end. The building loomed above them, only adding to the increasing worry and distrust forming since he had woken up in that hospital.

He begrudgingly sat down into the wheelchair, wishing he still had his automail, so he could get the hell out of this place already. Booth walked over, and quickly slapped one end of a set of handcuffs onto his wrist, and quickly hooking the other onto the wheelchair, making any attempt at escape impossible, even if he did have his automail.

They quickly passed by halls and halls of things that Winry would have taken apart in a moment's notice, then painstakingly put back together as she tried to figure out what it did. The thought put a smile on his face, before crushing reality settled in, causing him to realize he would probably never see her again.

They turned straight into two glass doors, that slid apart a split second before he was sure they were going to run into them, revealing a spacious room, offices dotting the edges, but a large raised platform which seemed to be the center of attention, holding multiple silver tables, one of them holding a body, multiple people gathered around it.

"Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth, im glad you could finally come back.", stated a woman with black hair pulled into a bun, highlighting her darker skin. Her glance fell on him, "And who is this, Booth?", she inquired.

"This, is out murderer, Cam and for some reason we are here to get his mechanical limbs back, that were apparently found at the scene." Booth explained hastily, not wanting to waste any time. Ed took this time to scan the room for possible exits, assuming that he could get the automail reattached in time for an escape.

"Booth, I don't think that's even possible, considering how injured this boy is, and the tremendous amount of force that had to have been applied to kill our victim, I doubt that he could have done it." Cam said, laying out the facts in front of all of them.

"Also, Booth considering how injured Edward was, and how he said that our victim had grabbed him, this could be called a count of self-defense.", Brennan finally spoke, voicing what they were all thinking.

Everyone let out a collective sigh, just as Angela ran up, worry sketched across her face, "Um, Sweetie? I can't find our victim or Ed over here in any of the data banks, missing, living, or dead."

A muffled laugh escaped him, causing everyone to look at him, " I highly doubt you could find any record of me or Envy over there ever existing in this world at all." he stated evenly, confusing everyone listening. "Is there any chance of me actually getting my automail in this century? I sure as hell don't want to lose another one." he ground out, a smirk lighting up his face, in a private joke that only he could understand.

"Oh, yes, Dr. Saroyan where is the evidence from the crime scene?" Brennan asked remembering the reason they had brought Ed to the lab in the first place. Cam motioned towards a lab situated in the corner of the room, and they headed towards it immediately, on course at last.

Booth hefted the metallic limbs from the boxes in the corner, strolling back over to Temperance and Edward. "Alright, all you need to do is position them so they are right in the port, then twist that little lever on the top to the left, and they will secure in place." Ed instructed.

Booth carefully slid the metal arm* into the socket on the boys shoulder, quickly jerking the lever to the left, causing the boy to yelp and jump away. "At least warn me when you're going to attach them!" he seethed, his eyes burning into Booth, " It isn't exactly painless you know."

Ed quickly grabbed his leg, braced himself, and twisted the lever, finally finishing attaching the long missing automail. For a moment he felt himself pushed to do alchemy right here, and bid this horrible world goodbye, only to remember, if I do that, I'll never earn Al's body back.

A ring flittered through the room, shaking Ed out of his thoughts, Booth pulled out a small chunk of plastic, flicked it open and began speaking into it, quickly snapping it closed," Come on Bones, we have another case", he reached over to Ed and slid the handcuff off the wheelchair, before quickly snapping it onto Dr. Brennan's wrist, "But we can't have you getting away in the process now can we?"

Booth quickly sauntered out of the room, leading the way to the case.


	4. Nightmares

"Booth, why did you handcuff me to him? I have to go and examine the remains, not to watch Ed." Brennan complained. "Hey, hey this isn't exactly a joy ride for me either Temperance, I do not want to get close to some dead person, period." Ed huffed back.

"Fine, I'll un-cuff you, but you have to stay near me and Bones, so come on." Booth slowly unlocked the cuffs, pushing Ed in front of him, both following closely behind Brennan into the crime scene. A large tarp covered the body, easily obscuring it from view "Why is there a tarp on my body?" Bones demanded, "W-well Miss Brennan, we were told how strict you were about not disturbing the evidence, so as soon as we were sure it was in your area of expertise, we left the scene alone."

"Then, someone, please pull the tarp off the body, then put it evidence for Hodgins to examine" she instructed, quickly sliding on her gloves. Two officers rushed forward, flinging the tarp off the body, revealing the mutilated corpse underneath. "According to the brow line, it appears to be female, and cause of death is probably bleeding out, from the large number of lacerations covering her body." Brennan explained. "I would approximate time of death tw-"

"No-not again, not mom" a small voice muttered from behind her, cutting her off, she glanced behind her, seeing Ed slowly sliding backwards, his eyes locked onto the body, horror written across his face.

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><p>Ed's POV<p>

The moment they pulled the tarp off of the body, all I could see was mom, or whatever you could call the monster we had brought back. "No- not again, not mom" I pleaded, with the surge of memories that rushed to the surface, blocking out the present, I stumbled backwards, trying to get away, to go anywhere, do anything to get away, to not re-live the pain that I had caused, the pain I went through.

"No it couldn't happen again, we wouldn't try it again, I couldn't do that t-to Al, we couldn't no-not after everything we went th-through t-to get his body ba-back", I begged, trying to prove that it couldn't be real, it was wrong. I couldn't handle it, the thought of it all happening again, and everything went black.

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><p>Earth POV<p>

It had been nearly an hour after Edward had collapsed at the crime scene, and somewhere near a half when they had brought him back to the Jeffersonian.

"Sweetie you have to get back to work, you can leave him in my office, I'll take care of him while you work." Were the only words anyone had spoken to her, not wishing to invoke her wrath.

Every minute Temperance would glace towards Angela's office where Ed was sleeping. Each second felt like an eternity, stretching on until he woke up. "Miss Brennan, from my findings of the female victim, I believe that she has been dead approximately 3 weeks, and the decomp. was mostly contained by the plastic tarp that was covering her." Nigel Murray* quickly stated, not wanting to put the case on hold any longer. Snapped out of her fog, Bones started to focus on the body, unease still gnawing a hole in her stomach.

"She also appears to have suffered a large amount of lacerations all over her body, some cutting down to her bones before she actually died of blood loss." Brennan followed, repeating things she had observed much earlier, but never bothered to say. "She also appe-" A scream echoed through the room, causing everyone to freeze, combined with a few shrieks from startled workers.

Brennan raced to Angela's office, the source of the scream, praying everyone was okay. She raced into the room expecting the worst, only to stumble in on Angela, Booth, and Cam all standing carefully around the couch. Temperance rushed over to them, only to be greeted by another cry of pain. Her eyes shot down to Ed, who in all honesty looked like hell. His face was covered in sweat, and his hair looked like a tangled mess, his eyes were scrunched closed, as if he was trying to shut something out, and his breath was coming in ragged gasps, like when they first found him.

Brennan reached down, hoping to wake him out of his nightmare. Just before she reached him, Booth grabbed her hand, "Bones, it won't help, I used to have these, from the war, these are the dreams that you can't just wake up from, you have to go all way through. They aren't really dreams at all, they're memories that you have to relive." he told her, ghosts flickering in his eyes.

"Al-Alphonse!, you can-can't take him, he's t-the only one I-I have left!" Ed choked out, tears sliding out of the corners of his eyes. "Mo-mom, I-I'm so-sorry, I-it wasn't supposed t-to end th-this way..."

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><p>Ed POV<p>

The memories flashed by, ever mistake I had made, everything I ever regretted. The transmutation, watching helplessly as Al was torn away from me, the monster we had created sitting at the center. "Alphonse!" I screamed, "No you can't take him, he's the only one I have left!" The monster in the center shifted, "Mom, I'm sorry! It wasn't supposed to end this way!"

The scene shifted, revealing a small, dark basement. "No, not here, anywhere but here, anyone but Nina!" I begged, praying not to have to relive the pain of this. "Bi-Big Brother?" a voice huffed, making me turn to face her. Her body was twisted into the form of her dog, not even resembling the girl we had played with. "Nina, I wish, more than anything, I could have stopped him, that I could have protected you" I mumbled, burying my face in her fur.

Nina vanished, the basement replaced by a stone street, cold rain pouring down. My gaze snapped up to the figure towering above me. "No, Scar, wait" I tried to push out, but nothing was working, I could only watch as his hand slowly came down.

As suddenly as he has appeared, he vanished, his hand inched from my face. Instead, a sword whirled around, smashing into my right arm. "48! Stop, I don't want to fight you!" I shouted, before two claws sliced through the helmet, ripping apart his blood seal. "48!" I yelled, just as the red lights faded from the helmet.

The scene shifted again, flashing to an underground cavern, "Ling!, don't do it!" I yelled before I even realized where I was, my eyes latching onto Father, just as he dropped the philosophers stone onto Ling's cut.

I was trapped in the same room, but around me, instead of Envy and Gluttony, was Hoenhiem, Teacher, Mustang, and Al. Father stood at the middle watching with great interest as electricity raced through me, trying to tear my body apart, activating the transmutation. A single thought raced through my head -Winry, before the scene shifted one last time.

The daggers landed solidly next to him, directly where my right arm would be, I strained against the hunk of metal that was lodged in my left, pinning me to the piece of concrete as Father approached. The circle lit up, signifying that Al was sacrificing his soul for my arm. "No Al!" I yelled, jerking myself out of the memories, and back into the present.


	5. Angela

Angela's Office

"Al, no!" Ed shouted as he shot forward, pulling himself into a sitting position. His hands flew to his face, realizing he was crying, to try and hide the tears that had slid out. "Damn it, I can't believe this, why would he make me relive everything now?" he muttered, followed by a string of curses.

"Ed, who would have done this to you?" Booth asked, obviously perturbed that Ed was blaming someone for this, and even more so that such a young person had live through enough to give him such horrible memories.

"Truth the same bastard that sent me- SHIT, why the hell am I telling this to you people, I have enough of the military to deal with back in- DAMN IT why the hell am I giving you my life story? Truth, this sure as hell isn't funny!" He yelled at the carefully pulled himself into a sitting position, noticing that both this shirt and boots had been removed, revealing his eye-catching automail.

"Edward, you need to tell us about this, after all, you have been cleared of any possibility of having killed that man out there, and I am currently working on the foster parent paperwork to legally adopt you, considering that you have no parents, guardians or relatives what so ever." Brennan stated, shocking the few people in the room.

"Dr. Brennan, you mean to tell me that you are going to adopt a boy that you have just met, without knowing anything about him at all?" Cam questioned. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I have given it a large amount of thought, and I have decided to move forward with this." Temperance replied.

"Well, fine knowing that I have absolutely no say in any of this crap, I know who killed the woman, in fact I took him down a while ago..." Ed cut in, before drifting away into thought.

"Ed, you mean to say just from seeing the body, you can tell us who killed the woman, and more importantly you have gone up against this guy before?" Booth demanded, shocked someone so young would know these things.

"Well, do you want to know about him or not? I would preferably want to stop him before he kills someone else." Ed stated, clearly angered at Booth's reaction. Booth immediately shut up, and waited while Edward explained further. "Here's what I know, he goes by the name of Barry the Chopper, but also 66" Ed flinched at the mention of that, but quickly moved on " he goes after women, and there are most likely, 99 percent for sure other victims, as he strikes hard, and keeps on going after he is sure he can get away without getting caught." Horror could be clearly seen on the faces of the everyone in the room, and Angela was beginning to look a bit green.

"But" Ed punctuated " He begins to slip up, and by now should be pretty easy to catch, if you know who to check out. Last time he pretended to be a woman, and had everyone convinced that he was a possible victim, rather than the murderer." Ed subconsciously reached to rub his right shoulder only to be stopped by the thick layer of gauze that covered it.*

"Well, me and Bones here will be off to deliver that information to the FBI, and have people out searching for this guy ASAP." Booth shouted from the door, dragging Temperance behind him.

"I have to get back to my job, so for now, Ed, you get to hang out with Miss Montenegro until either someone else takes charge of you, or Booth comes back. Have fun!" Cam called back as she retreated from the room.

For a few minutes the two sat in silence, neither on wanting to break the awkward silence that stretched between them. Finally, Ed broke the silence with a simple question "Miss Montenegro, what exactly do you do for your job?"

Angela quickly pulled Ed across the room, to a large screen before grabbing what looked like a drawing pad "My job is to identify the victims that are for one reason or another, unrecognizable. I also do things that work with spacial awareness, like the force put behind an attack. I can also do things like tattoos, much like the one your friend had that I just can't seem to recognize, I have run it trough every filter I could possibly think of, not to mention just messing around with it until my brain gave out." During her speech, images had flashed across the screen, faces and diagrams, before finally landing on a white sheet, with a few red points splashed around it.

For a few seconds, Ed was completely dumbfounded, shocked that technology had advanced this far in the hundred years he had spanned. The next, he knew why Angela was having such a problem with the tattoo, considering that if it even existed here, it had to be so old, or so ignored, that she hadn't even thought of trying something with a design anything like the ouroboros, or at least one with this design.

"May I?" he asked cautiously, gesturing towards the pad she held, hoping that he could figure it out without breaking it. "Oh, of course, I mean, two heads are better than one!" Angela exclaimed, quickly passing the pad over to Ed, followed by the small pen that accompanied it.

Ed glanced down to see a much smaller screen on the pad, and carefully began editing the remains of the picture. "For one, on this, for one reason or another it was turned onto its side" he muttered, quickly righting the picture. He then began quickly drawing in the largest parts of the ouroboros, before directing his attention to the smaller parts of it, quickly shining light on what the picture was at the beginning.

"Damn, I really wish that weren't really there, because it means that I really did kill him, and now I have to take care of the others..." He muttered, allowing Angela to only catch small bits of what he said.

He quickly passed the pad back to Angela, not wanting to risk breaking it, or anything else that he couldn't fix, for that matter.**

She quickly clicked away at the keys, before being rewarded with another picture that was quite similar to the one Ed had finished. "It's called an ouroboros-" "A dragon eating its own tail, I know" Ed cut her off, not wanting to hear the speech yet again.

"Well, I've analyzed all the samples, and it all lines up that the woman died around three weeks ago, that, and I'm apparently supposed to take Ed off of your hands so that you can get to work on ID-ing our victim. " Hodgins stated as he strode through the door.

With a sigh Ed pulled himself up, seconds after taking a seat back on the couch. "Sure, might as well hang out with someone new every five minutes, gives me plenty of time to meet them." he muttered sarcastically.

"Fine then, let's have an oh so exiting five minutes with bugs and slime why don't we?" Hodgins declared, his sarcasm rivaling Ed's own.

With a shrug, Ed slid out of the room, " Well, are we going or not, cause five minutes isn't a very long time."


	6. Hodgins

W/ Hodgins Now

"Now, what have you found relating to the woman's case?" Ed pressed, eager to do anything close to alchemy in any way, shape, or form. Hodgins was clearly open to share his 'entertaining' work with the enthusiastic teen.

"Well, the one thing that I couldn't quite match was a large amount of petroleum distillates found in all of the marks left on the bones, "Hodgins admitted, "and I've been scanning the mass-spectrometer like crazy trying to find a match on its signature."

For a minute Ed simply stood there, staring at the screen, scanning for anything that might give him an idea on what that could be, and his eyes finally locked on a small spike, barely standing out, but enough to make a difference in the reading. "Here it is, this small reading..." he leaned forward to read the small print of the screen, "Oh, its gypsum, in a small enough amount to simply mean that it fell in, or was mixed into the cleaning agent to screw with your computers." Ed cleanly finished, gesturing to the small spike that stood out on the screen.

"My God, Ed, how in the hell did I miss that?" Hodgins exclaimed, quickly blowing up the screen to show the single spike. "Wha- How the hell could I fall for that same drywall trick twice?" he practically yelled, just before sitting down and resting his head in his hands.*

"Whoa, wait wait wait, are you trying to tell me that a serial killer has mixed drywall into something to screw you up before this?" Ed, asked, obviously perturbed by this happening twice, and a supposed genius missing it twice.

"Well, yes and no, the last time the serial killer mixed a poison with drywall, so that with the small amount we had from the poisoning wasn't enough to tell us what it actually was, with the amount of drywall he had mixed into it." Hodgins explained, clearly trying to cover up his mistake.

"Oh, sure..." Ed drawled the sarcasm thickly coated. "I'm sure that the genius, especially one worth as much as you are, missed the same drywall trick twice, and both times with serial killers might I add, only to be corrected by people under you."

"Well, yes, but WHOA, wait, how did you know I was worth anything, and on top of that how did you know it was someone under me that corrected my mistake?" Hodgins questioned, slight creeped out by all of this.

"It's rather obvious, if you notice the way you carry yourself, and treat other, except for Angela, who by the way, must be your wife isn't she. Also, I can tell it was someone under you by the way you reacted when I corrected you this time around." Ed answered, as if it was nothing, "oh, by the way, it is your child correct?" he finished, rewarded with a stunned look from Hodgins.

"H-how do you know all t-this Ed, w-we just met!" Hodgins sputtered. "Pfft, and that gives any reason not to be observant? Geeze, if you were in combat you would have died a looong time ago." Ed muttered, before beginning to walk out of the room.

"Wait, Ed where are you going?" Hodgins called after him, confused at the turn of events. "Well, you have to go report your findings to that Saroyan chick don't you, or do you call you boss Cam?" Ed's voice echoed back. All Hodgins could do was race after, following him to the examination room.

* * *

><p>Examination Room<p>

"Oh, hello Ed, what are you doing here?" Cam greeted Ed as he strolled in. "I was hanging out with Hodgins, and apparently he discovered something of interest." Ed answered calmly. Pointing a hand back just as Hodgins rushed in.

"Dr... Saroyan" Hodgins puffed, then, after actually breathing, "man this kid is fast, also, he noticed a small amount of gypsum, meaning that he was either trying to screw with our scanners, or for some other reason, he also added tiny, almost microscopic bits that will help us pin point his location." after finishing, he walked over to type a few words on the computer, pulling up a map a tiny dot marking a location, before he zoomed in, a box marking off an exact location.

"So that is what took you so long to follow me, Jack for a minute there I just thought you were really, really out of shape." Ed muttered, his eyes still locked on the screen. "So this is where he's probably hiding right? So why don't you call the military man and tell him" Ed pushed, all while watching the expressions on their faces. To him the way people responded to what he told him cracked him up, but then again, it wasn't like they knew he was the prodigy genius, the Fullmetal alchemist.

"Oh, right " Cam reacted, pulling out a cell phone, while Ed wondered how they had gone from the big bulky phones in Amestris, to these small, compact ones that everyone seemed to own. "Booth, we got the address of the guy you're looking for... yeah, Ed did help find it, why... alright, here" the conversation was relatively short, but then Cam shoved the phone towards Ed, with a simple "he wants to talk to you."

Ed carefully gripped the phone, before bringing it to his ear, "Uh, hello?", for a few seconds there was nothing, until Booth's voice resounded into his ear, making him flinch away, "How did you help find the location so quickly?" Was his only demand. "Oh, well, Hodgins was watching me, and then I noticed that there was a small amount of gypsum mixed into, the umm, trace amounts of evidence left behind in the cuts through the bones. So Hodgins freaked out about missing it", with this Ed was rewarded with him ducking away, the shame burning on his face, "then he found a few trace amounts of who knows what that led us to the location." he finished with a heavy sigh. "Then we came to Cam, and she called you. Anything else?" Ed couldn't help but add some sarcasm, when he talked to Booth all he could hear was Mustang's obnoxious voice.

A sigh was heard from the other end of the call as well, "Stay there, we're coming to get you", was all that Booth said before hanging up. Ed flicked the phone closed, and carefully handed it back to Cam.

"What did he say?", was the first thing she said, greatly annoying Ed further. "He only said that he was coming to get me, that and not to go anywhere, like I actually could leave without getting shot or something." Was all Ed could reply, his voice laced with easily detectable sarcasm.


	7. Confrontation

Da Jeffersonian; Approximately 20 minutes later

With a sigh, Ed stood up, now beginning to pace the floor. The minutes were dragging by, each moment multiplied into a thousand, every second stretching into an hour. "Honestly, how long is it going to take for them to get here, I've waited less for Mustang to finish his paperwork than this!" he muttered under his breath, annoyed at the world.

With that, Booth and Bones walked through the doors, a rush of air following behind as the doors closed seamlessly behind them. "Finally you two show up!" Ed grumbled, pushing himself up from leaning against the railing. "Now, are we going to catch a murderer or not?"

"Great, you're ready to go, we got caught in traffic, and now we get to go meet the SWAT team to try and catch this guy" Booth breathed, obviously as anxious as Ed to get out there. Cam could only watch as all three rushed out of the room.

* * *

><p>Now- the Undisclosed Location<p>

Ed was immediately greeted with a gun as soon as he exited the car.

As soon as he followed it, he was greeted with Booth. It took him a second to process that Booth was handing him the gun, wondering why he would even offer him the gun. Clearly, he has no clue that I could probably kill this guy in my sleep, let alone take him on... especially considering how he found me.

"I can't let you go in unarmed, but I can't let you stay out here, we might need you as leverage, or to actually identify this guy before we arrest him" Booth instructed, taking on an air of Mustang, overprotective and oh so annoying.

"Fine" he muttered, hesitantly gripping the gun, which looked stunningly familiar to the one Hawkeye had given him before. He undid the safety, before setting his finger near the trigger. "Well? Are we going to go get this guy or not?"

Booth was clearly shaken that a kid this young knew his way around a gun already, but with a sigh motioned for the SWAT team to follow behind. Within seconds, the door had been kicked open, exposing the rancid interior of the abandoned home. Ed walked close behind Booth, his finger tightened around the trigger of the gun, prepared to shoot at any second. Brennan followed close behind, hefting a ridiculously large gun.

The group finally came to the end of the hallway, to be greeted by a living room that was in no means livable. Trash was strewn across the floor, and rats skittered across the room, fleeing from the new intruders. The smell was over whelming, a cross between something rotting, and a smoldering fire, the fire one left behind by various junkies and smokers using the house for a hangout.

"Barry! 66! Whichever one you are now, come on out!" Ed shouted, causing it to echo throughout the house. "Ed!" Booth hissed, but it was too late.

"Oh, another pretty woman for me to chop up!" a voice hissed, sending shivers across the backs of everyone in the room. A figure slid into the living room, large and blocky, before facing the group.

"Ah, so it's 66 this time, damn, I was really wanting to see you in a real human body this time Barry" Ed said, while sliding in front of Booth and cocking his gun. Booth set his hand on Ed's shoulder, but he merely shrugged it off. "One sec, Booth, I need to see if he really is this time..." he cut off, before unloading the clip.

Bullets slammed into the figure in the corner, but the man didn't respond, the only sound that was heard was a hollow ring of metal hitting metal, until every bullet had been fired. "Well, damn, you are hollow 66, this really puts a damper on my idea, they arrest you, try you, and put you to death, making it so that I don't have to kill you, but no, apparently Truth has something against me" Ed huffs as the ringing of the shots subsided.

"Fullmetal? Man, I didn't think you would show up here! I thought I would just get caught in the rain or something, but this does make things more interesting!" 66 gloated, before his voice turned cold and hollow "This time I'm gonna actually chop you up, you don't have any military protecting you this time around!" With that, 66 jumped from the corner, the flash of his knife barely registering before it came down right on Bones.

Just as it hit, a clap resounded around the room, before the crackle of electricity, accompanied by blue sparks jumping around. When Brennan looked up, all she could see was the blade of a meat cleaver half imbedded in the now black metal arm of Ed.

"Geeze, Barry, I honestly think you got better since the last time, considering how I improved as well, this still isn't a fair fight for you" Ed hissed, his intent obvious. "Not a fair fight? Not a fair fight? Well, I'll show yo-" 66 began shrieking, before thick cuffs hooked around one of his wrists and was quickly hooked onto the other, forcing him to release the cleaver that was now stuck in Ed's arm.

* * *

><p>Now to the car<p>

The murderer was quickly surrounded by the SWAT team, and lead out into a armored vehicle, from which Ed had been told he would be taken to the FBI to be interrogated, which is why they were currently driving down yet another long, seemingly endless road, to go and 'interrogate' someone whom they all knew was guilty on all accounts.


	8. Interrigation

Interrogation room- FBI building

Edward Elric was pissed. To put things very simply, he was pissed.

The FBI building reminded him so much of Central, and every single thing he had been forced to leave behind. He still felt like Mustang, that annoying womanizer of a man would be sitting behind every desk he walked by, filling out his endless piles of paperwork.

Every single desk he walked by reminded him how far he was from where he wanted to be, how much further he has to travel to get to there again. By the time they reached the room, Ed was ready to crush Barrie's blood seal then and there. Booth had taken up a spot in the corner, allowing Temperance and Ed to take seats at the table, facing Barry.

Ed remembered bits and pieces of what had happened with Barry, especially concerning Hawkeye. His mind played out countless scenarios, the majority of them ending with either having to explain everything, then running like hell, killing Barry, or everything blowing up in his face. The other bits was where everything worked perfectly, and all of his secrets stayed where they should be, and where he actually got through explaining, and they didn't try to throw him in the nuthouse.

"So, Fullmetal, who's the chick?" broke through his thoughts. Barry's voice still echoed in his armor a few moments after he actually spoke, giving it an eerie echo.

"Oh, her? This is Temperance Brennan, or as I consider kinda like the Hawkeye of this place, and the guy back there, Booth, is like the Mustang of this place, especially in the way that if you try to hurt Temperance here, he wouldn't hesitate to kill you." Ed replied simply, his voice taking a dark turn as he finished. "Then again, I would love to kill you here and be done with it all..." Ed slipped in, as if simply pondering the possibility out loud.

"She seems like a lot of fun to chop up, don't cha think Fullmetal?" rang out next, responded to by a silence, before "Don't call me that Barry! It's not like anyone's going to be referring to me like that for much longer." from Ed.

"So wait, you're getting out of the army? I thought you had to get your bucket of bolts brother back to his body, assuming he's actually real anyway" Barry flaunted.

Hands slammed onto the table, one leaving a metallic ring in the place of an echoing slam. "You're the one that told him that? No wonder that came up in the hospital after Lab 5!" Ed's chair toppled over as he shot out of his chair to stand at the table, leaving a loud bang, covered only by the sounds of fighting.

"You bastard! Do you have any idea what that put him through? He's my little brother, and all I wanted to know is if he blamed me?" was screamed across the room. A single fist shot across the shining table, causing the other members of the room to flinch away in expectance of the bang as it collided with Barry's armor.

Not a sound pierced the stunned silence of the room. Ed's flesh fist had been trapped within the massive metal fist of Barry's armor (or actually Barry). "Let me go so I can break your damn seal!" was shouted across the room, bursting the silence like an overfilled balloon.

Booth shot forward, the gun already cocked and ready to fire within seconds. "Barry, just let the kid go, I really don't want to shoot you, but I will" Booth threatened, his voice tight with stress.

Neither Barry nor Ed reacted, caught in a silent staring match, each one daring the other to make the first move. Both of their bodies were ridged, prepared to spring into battle at the slightest provocation.

In a sudden, smooth movement, Barry's right hand shot forward, grabbing a vice grip onto the left shoulder of Ed's shirt. His arm slowly slid down, tearing shirt and gauze down with it. What was revealed was a long, thin scar stretching down on Ed's shoulder.

"Oh, maybe I should finish the job number 48 started, don't cha think Fullmetal? He did start chopping you up pretty well." Purred Barry, the smile that must be on his face was evident even in just his tone as he slid the words out.

Edwards bangs slid down, slowly covering his eyes, making his expression unreadable. "You're right...m-maybe you should just finish me off..." Ed's voice was hollow, as if every bit of life had been drained out by the words.

The words acted like a sledge hammer, slamming into everyone's chests. Booth faltered, his gun shifted, pointing past the pair.

With a sudden twist, Ed shot under the table, slamming Barry out of his seat and onto the floor. The armor rang as it hit the floor. The room lit up with blue lightning, the crackling all but hiding a single string of words, "I'm sorry Barry." Before the light was gone.

Temperance and Booth just barely shifted their views before they could see what was left. The teen seemed dwarfed by the pile of smoking metal that surrounded him. His bangs covered his face, but the distress was etched across his features.

"I-I had to do it... there was no other way..." he muttered, the emotion on his voice made it obvious that he was trying to convince them as well as himself on what had just happened.

"Edward, what have you done?" were the only words that Temperance could whisper, watching the smoke curl off the chunks of metal.


	9. Amestris

Central Command, Amestris

The papers were scattered across the desk, each one for a different set of repairs that needed to be approved to move forward. Each one lay about, scattered like the bodies left after a battle.

Mustang could only stare at one set, lying just clear of the array of papers that coated the desk. The papers stared up at him, a mockery or the one thing he had failed at, the only thing he had no achieved.

"Fuhrer Mustang?" was called through the door, quickly followed by Riza pushing through the large wooden doors that mocked him daily. Her amber eyes glowered at the pile of papers that stood unsigned on his desk. "Sir, you need to okay all of these renovation requests, Central is still suffering the effects of the fight with Father."

"I know Riza... It's just... I can't focus on them" He said with a sigh, gesturing to the papers in front of him.

"I understand sir, but you can't let Edward's disappearance stop the repair of the city."

The ache inside his chest only multiplied, but he forced it down, smothering it underneath everyone he had saved. Then, he set to work filling out the mountain of work that was sitting before him.

On the Way to Roy Mustang's Apartment

The walk back to his flat was balmy, the streetlights shone as beacons, cutting through the darkness. Hawkeye stayed close beside him, always alert, scanning the dark for danger.

"Roy, are you sure it's best for you to still take this route home? It isn't exactly safe for you as the new Fuhrer after all." Riza muttered, her eyes flickering to every passerby, every car that passed, every dark alley that loomed before them.

"Riza~ you seem so tense now, even more than usual!" Roy worked out, running his fingers through hair, trying his hardest to seem like he wasn't tense, while stuffing the fear and stress down that had been building up from the second Ed had disappeared and his own sight had returned. Somehow he managed to get a winning smile to lace across his features.

The returning sigh echoed through the night, along with the realization that they had arrived.

* * *

><p>Just outside Roy Mustang's Apartment<p>

"Roy…" was all that was muttered as Riza settled her hand on Roy's shoulder, both bracing for the question that they knew would be asked, and they would not have the answer once again. Every time they faced that question, it almost seemed more hopeless that they would ever have the answer that they all so desired, that they all refused to admit to themselves.

Slowly, carefully Roy slid the key into the lock, as if he ran the risk of waking someone. As he pushed the door inwards, to be greeted by the same earnest faces that sat and waited behind it every day.

"Have you found out where brother is?" there it was, the one thing that almost managed to crush them more each time that the face behind it. Alphonse watched them both, begging for the day that Ed would be standing there, or that they had something, anything to tell him other than the empty nothing they had been staring at from day one.

"I-I'm sorry Alphonse…there's still nothing" Roy admitted, defeat sneaking into his voice, forcing his shoulders down. He tried to smooth down his frumpled hair, trying his hardest to at least act as if it was not that big of a problem – _So what? Ed's missing; he always manages to show up again! _But it wasn't that simple, it wasn't like one of the missions he would vanish on for weeks on end, there was no way Ed could up and vanish without anyone knowing where he went, especially due to the fact he left Alphonse, of all people behind.

"It's alright R-roy… I'm sure that he's alright. I can feel it" Alphonse stated, sensing the tense mood that emanated through the room. His words did bring a small truth; all of them could feel it.

It was like a little flame, barely there at all, tiny, but just big enough that they could all feel it.

"Oh… Alphonse!" cried Mei tearfully, latching onto Alphonse, along with expressing the emotion that all of them wanted to. The very shocked and emaciated Alphonse was a little slow to respond, and struggled with that. All he could reply with way patting her on the head, and trying his hardest to calm her down.

Somehow, this managed to brighten the room, bringing a smile flickering across all of their faces.

"Don't worry Al, Mei knowing Ed, he's sitting somewhere, probably just beat the crap out of a bad guy, either staring down another one with a gun, or more likely, he's sitting there bored as hell while someone is yelling the crap out of him for beating up the bad guy!" Roy managed to get out before cracking up, allowing the rest of the group to share one fleeting moment of happiness together.


	10. A bit of a shock

"_Don't worry Al, Mei knowing Ed, he's sitting somewhere, probably just beat the crap out of a bad guy, either staring down another one with a gun, or more likely, he's sitting there bored as hell while someone is yelling the crap out of him for beating up the bad guy!" Roy managed to get out before cracking up, allowing the rest of the group to share one fleeting moment of happiness together._

* * *

><p>Due to the annoying bastards amazing luck, he had actually been right. Edward was currently bored as hell, getting his ear chewed off by an idiot of an 'FBI, whatever that was' agent.<p>

"What the hell are you thinking, kid!" Booth seethed "Where the hell did this guy even go?!" All of this was accompanied with rather large gestures toward the now no longer smoking pile of crumpled metal that were the remains of Barry the Chopper.

The blond glared back up at the man, growing more and more impatient with each passing question that he was sure they knew he couldn't answer. "Why don't you tell me that?" he growled back "After all, you are the people with the state of the art lab, aren't you? You can probably figure that out far faster than this hopeless teen, can't 'cha?" Now he was just throwing insults into his face, letting his anger at all of this, truth, envy, the pointlessness of these peoples questions all of it flow into his words, much like he would with the Colonel Bastard.

Booth sunk down into the chair, pushing his hair back and ending up with his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. All of this signified to Ed that he had won, and the knowledge of that brought a smirk rising to his face.

"So…. do I get to get out of here now…or would you like to continue?" Ed settled his feet onto the table, and pulled his arms to behind his head, looking and feeling just for a moment like he ruled the world.

It was Temperance that ended it, pulling Ed up out of his seat. "Booth, I'll just take him back to my apartment, it has been a long day… for all of us." It wasn't a very good excuse, but it was enough to tear both of them out of their silent war.

Booth stood up, brushing his coat and pants off, as if trying to rid them of crumbs. After a few seconds he agreed, walking out of the room and disappearing down the endless maze of the hallways lacing through the FBI building.

Temperance let out a small sigh, shaking her head almost imperceptibly, muttering under her breath something along the lines of "men". Grabbing onto Ed and pulling him along, not letting her grip falter even slightly as she dragged him quickly out of the room and then through the maze of hallways, the direct opposite direction that Booth had taken.

Ed struggled to keep up with her, staring at his feet as he nearly ran through the halls behind the…. slightly angered woman. His mind had shut down, no longer even thinking of anything more than placing one foot in front of the other and trying not to fall with the quick pace they were moving at.

The car ride was vaguely similar, Ed staring out the window at the now dark world, watching the lights race past them, his mind shutting down slowly. Bones risked a few worried glances at him, her mind praying that they could find a way to prove what had happened, re-living she had seen a million times in her head, still not processing what could have caused the man in the armor to disappear altogether, leaving just the suit behind, and why the entire event had caused Ed so much inner turmoil.

* * *

><p><span>Brennan's Apartment <span>

Temperance didn't speak a word to the upset teen, quickly disappearing into her room as soon as she had locked the door behind them and watched him disappear into the bathroom before she even had a smidgeon of a chance to tell him where he could sleep.

As soon as Ed was sure she wouldn't hear him, and positive it was secured, he turned to the mirror. Dragging his fingers though his hair, and then resting his hands on the counter, he slid his hands to his shoulder, pulling at the pieces of gauze that were sitting frayed and limp.

He was thankful enough that neither Booth nor Bones had noticed the small bump that showed small bits of metal shining through the ripped gauze. Another thing that pleased him immensely was the fact that the thing in question had enough reasoning to stay silent.

His fingers dragged over the surface of the metal, slowly setting the object on the counter, propping it against the wall. A sigh finally escaped him, "Barry, you sure as hell are one lucky bastard" he muttered, leaning his back against the wall.

"Well you didn't think I survived all this time on skill now did ya Fullmetal?" came the quick response, unfortunately rather loudly, the sound bouncing around the room.

"Will you quiet down?" Ed hissed through his teeth, cocking his ear towards the door to be sure that Bones hadn't heard anything. "You idiot, if we aren't careful their going to find out what you actually are! On top of that they'll get all concerned on how the hell I knew what you were from the beginning!"

A slight chuckle echoed from the blood seal "They are going to figure it out, Fullmetal there is no way that it isn't going to happen, especially with how smart that Bones lady is."

Ed buried his face in his hands "I know… I just can't bring myself to leave, I can just tell that there's something more for me to do, or else Truth would have kicked me the hell out of here by now."

"Well sorry to tell ya kid, but I wish you good luck ta this, considering that if I can show up, there's no telling who else you're gonna run into" Barry half-whispered back.

"I sure as fuck hope you're the worst thing I get to run into here…." Ed trailed off, clutching his head with one hand. "Damn…. maybe todays just been a little too hard on me all over."

Ed jerked the door open, and quickly flicked off the light, "'m going to bed…. just stay quiet, okay?" And with that the alchemist retired for the day.


	11. Sickness and Surprises

Disclaimer: as stated before, the storyline is mine, and I will never own, nor have I ever owned FMA or Bones in my life

* * *

><p>Ed's POV<p>

I was woken up as shivers laced up and down my body, pulling the blanket Temperance had left for me closer I tried to warm up. I had felt cold from the moment I had woken up locked in that room, the chills only worsening as the days went on.

A yawn interrupted my thoughts as I pushed myself standing, walking over to pull the shades up and hopefully bring some light into the almost black room. An automail hand closed around the cord, pulling it down and letting light spill into the room.

The effect was almost instantaneous.

I stumbled back, my eyes narrowed, and then closed against the bright light that was coming in through the window. I managed to slowly inch my way back to the couch, collapsing onto it in a tired heap. I could attribute the fatigue and lack of hunger to traveling through the gate, and on top of that how I was injured. But the sudden inability to look at light, that was something new.

I pressed my hands over my eyes, letting out a strained laugh. "I'm just falling into pieces over here… aren't I?" I muttered to myself, trying to ignore how scratchy and strained my voice was getting, just adding to the list of symptoms that had decided to pile up.

I tried to stand up again, narrowing my eyes against the light pouring in from the window. I made it a few steps before running into what I had to assume was a small table and toppling onto the wooden floor.

* * *

><p>Temperance POV<p>

I had been woken a few times during the night, each time I had no idea what had woken me. It wasn't until the last one that just before I managed to fall asleep, I heard it. It was an awful wracking cough that echoed through my apartment, but it died down just as soon as it had shown up. I didn't give it another thought, as sleep had already dragged me under by then.

I was awoken for the final time by a large crash, quickly followed by something heavy colliding with the floor. Shooting out of bed, I ran to my bedroom door and wrenched it open, to be greeted by the golden haired teen half splayed on the floor and trying to push himself up off it.

My mind just couldn't wrap around what could be wrong. He seemed so healthy and fine yesterday and it didn't seem reasonable that he was suffering from blood loss with no symptoms of it showing in any of the time before now.

* * *

><p>Apartment POV<p>

Ed managed to push himself up into a sitting position, glancing through narrowed eyes toward the door he had heard open earlier. Luckily, it was still dark enough in that direction that he managed to look nonchalant enough by the time he noticed Temperance looking worriedly down at him.

"Ed… are you all right?" She said leaning down, offering one hand to help him the rest of the way off of the floor.

Ed gratefully accepted but did his best to hide the knowledge that he would have most likely stayed on the floor for a good part of the day without her help. "Yes, I'm fine… I just tripped getting up; it is pretty dark in here after all."

Brennan looked around the room worriedly, it seemed fine to her, if even too bright. "Ed… are you sure, it's brighter in here just from the sun then it was last night, and you seemed just fine getting around then."

The boy noticeably stiffened in front of her, realizing he had picked the wrong thing to say. "Ah… well… I suppose it's just me eyes this morning… still getting used to being awake I suppose." He hastily spouted the lie, praying she wouldn't care enough to look into it, or make him look at the light.

Brennan laced her fingers around his arm, guiding him back to the couch. "Ed… can you look up at me, there might be something wrong with your ey-" She was cut off by her phone ringing on the counter and picked it up, glancing worriedly back at the teen on the couch.

Edward took this opportunity to stumble his way back to the bathroom, only to grab tightly onto the sink when he flipped the lights on. "Damn… this can't possibly end well…" He rubbed a hand over his eyes, trying to block out at least some of the light that seemed to burn them so badly.

"Barry… I swear to God If you had any part in this, I will break you into smithereens right now." He growled, picking up the piece of metal off the counter. The metal immediately replied, a bit too loudly, "You really think I would mess with you, The FullMetal Alchemist, especially after you dismantled me and currently hold me by my blood seal? What kind of stupid do you think I am?!"

Ed clapped his other hand over the blood seal, hoping to at least muffle anything else the killer tried to say, glancing toward the door to see if Temperance was about to pull the door open and catch him red handed and with a killer literally in the palm of his hand. "You idiot be quiet!" He hissed. "Do you really want her to find out about you, and then me?"

"Oh calm down kid." Came the muffled response and Ed tightened his grip on the metal. "In case you haven't noticed _Barry,_ you're nothing more than a soul tied town to a piece of metal, and alchemy shouldn't exist in this world at all!" He pulled one hand away from the metal, running it through his disheveled golden hair. "So if either of us is found out before we finish off Envy, which even I doubt will be easy, seeing as he's already _dead."_

"Aww come on kid, there's gotta be some way to fix all this, heck you may run into somebody else just like me and you have to take care of them before going on your merry way, right~?" Came the chuckling response.

"Fine fine… I'm sure that it's just that… it has to be that…" Ed tucked the metal into his pocket, carefully pulling his hair back into a quick ponytail, not about to take the time to put it into this signature braid. "I had better be able to feel better before then thoug-" He was cut off, this time by Temperance shoving the door open, her clothes hastily pulled on and hair still half brushed.

"We have to go, now… sorry for the suddenness, but Booth says now. And he sure as hell means it this time..." Already she was pulling open the front door and waiting for him to follow suit.

He trotted into a quick pace behind her, narrowly managing to keep up as it was. "What exactly happened, can you at least tell me that much?"

Brennan barely looked back at him, while making an attempt to pull her hair back. "We have a new case… more important too." Ed couldn't really grasp how figuring out one killer to another could be more important, especially when one they had caught had just magically disappeared. "It's for the FBI this time… they've found an agent who's been missing." She let out a slow breath. "It isn't something we've seen before, but apparently his skull was blown apart from the inside."


	12. Baiting the Trap

In the Car

The needle had never dipped below a solid 40, regardless of the changing speed limits, ranging from 25 to 30, but Temperance never slowed down a bit. Ed could practically see how tightly she was clenching onto the steering wheel, a few emotions sketched into her normally so carefully concealed face. He could pick out a few, anger that was quickly fading into fear, along with the constant concentration that kept her eyes locked on the road, luckily for him, and not checking on him as he did his best to brush his golden locks into a position that that both concealed his squinting eyes, and provided some sort of shade from the blinding sunlight.

After succeeding, at least partially, in that matter her turned his attention to the woman next to him that almost seemed like she was about to break the steering wheel into pieces by how tight she was clutching onto it. "Please, try to calm down Bones." He whispered through gritted teeth, trying to calm her down enough that he could let his stomach catch up with them, as well as avoiding spilling anything about Scar in an attempt to calm her down. "It's going to be all right, after all, getting there 5 minutes earlier won't speed up anyone else showing up." He wasn't entirely sure if that made much sense anymore, but in his head it sounded good enough to try and convince her with.

Unfortunately for him, that only seemed to make the car go faster. Ed sunk slowly into his seat, trying to convince himself that this time he would stay quiet about that man that had tried to kill him before, not at all wanting to try and take down Scar. After all, they had just come to an agreement, they had been friends, as soon as Father was gone everything should have gone smoothly, shouldn't it? His mind was going slow as it is; throwing a military murdering Ishvalan into the mix couldn't possibly help his condition, whatever it was, in the least. Even still, he focused on the why and how then, letting his mind wander before the car slammed to a graceless stop.

* * *

><p><span>Jeffersonian Now<span>

Brennan practically dragged the small Elric into the building, the boy only managing to find his way to his feet fully after they had entered the at least dimmer lit halls before carefully pulling his aching automail out of the grip of the hurried woman.

Again, the doors rushed open with a small hiss just before they would have collided with them, leaving Edward feeling more unnerved than he had before, but then truly that wasn't saying much after the morning he had had, and the news he had been given.

Already there was quite a gathering around the body, a few men in suits conversing with Booth, Cam and the others standing back, clearly waiting for Temperance to arrive and tell them what to do, especially on a case of something that they had never seen before. Even more so it was the case of an FBI agent, and that made it even more pertinent that it needed to be solved, with no mistakes, and as quickly as they possibly could manage, so they waited.

Bones took the stairs in far fewer steps then she probably ever should have, Ed following carefully behind as he kept his eyes almost squinted closed as he focused his narrow gaze at his feet, hoping that they would ignore his current… sickly he would suppose, state.

Temperance was quickly gloved and barging into the agents' conversation, the only words caught by others were "Why did you move my body?" And then "What about the others, have you still not found out how this has been happening, or who?"

Ed grit his teeth, smothering the growl that wanted to escape him. It wasn't just that, he wanted to yell, or scream that this was all happening again, that everyone who ever did any field work at all for the military wanted to pack up all their things and run far, far away from here. He wanted to run his sick ass out of here and find Scar; he wanted to use his alchemy to stop this from continuing.

Instead he strained his ears in an attempt to hear what they were still discussing, a few snippets about some sort of "plan to trap them" and again another discussion about the reports "of a man wearing a yellow colored jacket, dark skinned, and with a large scar on his face" seen near almost every attack scene, either before or directly after the men, only men so far, had been killed.

He was convinced, but instead of running off he stayed where he was, leaning nonchalantly against the railing behind him as everyone rushed about their work, Temperance and Cam trying to piece back together what could have caused the injuries seen on their bones, or Jack clearly thinking up some way to test ways to blow the human skull into pieces like that. The suits were discussing over some sort of way to call the 'killer' out to make it easier to catch him, and all the better to catch him red handed, or going after the bait that had oh so clearly volunteered to stand up to this guy, or Booth.

A muffled groan escaped Ed as he heard Booth explaining how he would be able to handle this, and his fellow suits just going along with it, just going along with it for God's sake! He wanted to tell them all what Scar was capable, but instead he chose to keep his mouth shut and bide his time until Booth was actually in trouble. Because, hell, no matter how fit this guy is, Booth was clearly past his personal prime and even Armstrong in all his shirtless glory could only manage to hold off Scar for a few minutes when he was out for blood… even more importantly _Ed's _blood.

Ed quickly shuffled those thoughts away; they were for a different time and a different fight. For Truth's sake Booth had better be okay, regardless of him standing up against Scar, who was, most likely, bent on blood and revenge as he portrayed these men in suits as the alchemists that had whipped out his entire people in a matter of weeks. His hand wandered to the gleaming piece of metal still stuck inside his pocket, wondering if he should just try to sneak off and see what he could accomplish on his own, after all he would be far more able to lure Scar out with a few outrageous acts of alchemy then Booth could with whatever technology they planned on using… right?

Slowly he pulled himself away, heading toward Brennan's office instead of the door. Right now he simply needed somewhere dark enough that he could actually look up, and quiet enough that he would be able to think without the chance of someone else spouting idiotic ideas at him and messing up his currently fragile train of thought.

As soon as he was in the room he could see the books lining over her shelves, but disregarded them almost entirely as he flopped face first onto the couch, his normally curious mind smothered by a want to sleep, the hope that rest would help him sort out the information that was being thrown at him from almost every direction, even while he still struggled to get onto his own two feet from whatever was messing with him, sickness or otherwise.

It could have only been a few moments before his wearied mind faded into the recesses of sleep.

* * *

><p><span>Some Time Later<span>

Bones fumed as Booth turned away from her, more interested in calling out the monster that had killed the man lying before her then listening to her reasoning on why he should wait, why he should stop it or he could end up just like the mass of bones sitting on the shining table. Her mind was catching every detail, trying to find anything that could help him before something else happened to put him in more danger then he was already in.

They had all seen the news cast, nearly an hour earlier it had been broadcast over almost all the surrounding states even, that they had found him, Mark Winn was his name, the murdered FBI agent. It had gone further than that even, saying that they were finalizing the plan on catching his killer, all of this taking place in the Jeffersonian of Washington DC. This was as good as sitting a calling card out to the killer, but just to stick a lovely little cherry on top of all of this, it was said that as well as that, a mass of nearly ten guards, FBI agents, had been set to prevent anyone from getting to the body or disturbing any of the work.

Of course, almost all of this was a load of shit.

There was no armed guards, no plan on how to catch him at all. The only thing that they had was a single FBI agent standing on the platform with her and an empty Jeffersonian, everyone else had either fled or been forced to leave, no one wanting to take any chances. There were apparently snipers dotted along the buildings around them, as well as a few more men ready to rush in, guns blazing as soon as the signal was given. The only reason Bones was still there at all was because she had simply refused to leave, never saying so, but holding the threat of quitting her work for the FBI to be allowed to stay.

All that was left to do now was sit and wait for a murderer that they didn't even know who they were or what they looked like, they could only sit and wait for them to take the bait and show up.


	13. A Fight Begins

Jeffersonian

Ed dragged himself off of the couch, letting out a muffled yawn before heading out to the platform again and hoping that no one had really missed him enough to start looking. He squinted against the blinding lights, thankful at least for the hair over his eyes blocking some of it. "Booth?" He let out another yawn, rubbing at one of his eyes to try and clear it a little more, "Brennan… hey where did everyone else go, it really isn't that late yet."

Instead of facing him, the two kept their eyes locked on the entrance to the room, neither one moving an inch from where they had been standing. Bones still had what looked like a rib held between her two hands, but now it looked like she was trying to snap it in half rather then check over it carefully, her hands shaking and her knuckles slowly getting whiter as her grip tightened.

Booth's hand was resting on his pistol, the look on his face as Ed got closer one that was completely contained, but his body screaming that it was time to shoot then run away before the threat had any chance to get closer to them.

Ed soon noticed why he was able to see more clearly now, the lights were all off and what looked like rain clouds were slowly drawing up on them from above. Slowly he turned his eyes to face what they were both so evidently afraid of, steeling himself for the face that was sure to be there, sure enough there were two red eyes staring murderously up at them over the dark, slim rims of his glasses. "Scar" was the only word that would leave his mouth, and he was instantly overcome again by the memories of the first time meeting him, the rain pattering over the pavement, the clock's loud 'dong' the one sound that had kept him from having his head blown open and all over the street.

The Ishbalan's crimson eyes shot to the young alchemist, narrowing as he recognized the other. "Edward Elric, it seems you have been put into my path once again by the great Ishbala, to allow me to purge you out of this sickened world along with the other." This time his eyes flashed to Booth and he began moving forward faster. "He offers me a chance to once again clean a world of its corrupt governors."

Booth began pulling his gun away from his side; the flash of light that reflected off its surface was enough to spur Edward into movement before Scar had a chance to attack Booth. "Your fight is with me this time!" He sprung forward, darting around Booth and managing to land a decent kick against the flat of the grown man's upraised arm. An instant reaction shoved Edward back a few feet, narrowly managing to avoid stumbling even further backward into the railings that were surrounding the platforms where Booth and Temperance could only watch as the fight commenced.

Instead of taking the Isbalan head on, Edward ducked under the next strike, swinging his leg under the other's to try and tip him off balance enough to keep from needing to use alchemy at all, lest have Sealy and Bones see and ask questions late-. The thought was cut off when his plan failed, Scar instead using their stance to knock Ed to the ground, his hand swinging down to give the finishing blow before there was a chance to protect himself.

There was no time to plan, or even to think at all. Ed lurched to the side just before his back collided with the ground, effectively knocking the air out of himself in the process. Scars hand hit the ground, the pain shooting up it preventing him from pulling up before a clap echoed next to his ear, and hands slapped into the concrete. Electric sparks laced around them, lighting up the alchemists faces before the ground moved up, slamming into the adult and knocking him across the room.

A growl escaped the older man's lips, pulling himself off the floor and slamming his hand into the ground, watching as cracks spread over the ground, the destruction finally finding its way to the teen, the ground underneath him sinking down and making his own attempts to stand up worthless as he fell back again, his head cracking painfully against the concrete surrounding the indent. "Ah-"Hands instantly moved to the wound, trying to make sure that it wasn't serious while still trying to make it to his feet again. "Back off Scar, this isn't like Amestris! They aren't corrupt, they didn't wipe out Isval!" He clapped his hands again, pressing them against the floor. Quickly a hand rose out of it, grabbing tightly onto his opponent before Scar had a chance to run away, leaving him fighting against the solid stone to break free and attack again.

Almost immediately, regret dug a hole into Ed's chest as he looked back at Brennan and Booth, each of them only staring wide eyed at him. "Edward… what did you…?" Even then, neither of them could comprehend what they had just seen, or figure out how to ask what had occurred. Soon enough, their useless mutterings were interrupted.

"Fullmetal Alchemist, release me and surrender to the judgment of Isvala." During the fight his sunglasses had been cracked and tossed way, his piercing red eyes glaring at the boy as he continued to struggle against the immutable grip of the stone fist. He didn't look like he was about to just give up, even as Ed began to walk closer.

"Scar… don't you remember… we were fighting on the same side, all of them were dead!" He couldn't stop himself from trying to remind Scar, he wanted the other to just go back to Amestris, to go back to all the plans he had, so that maybe Scar could tell them he was okay… if they were even okay. "Why do you only remember trying to kill me?!" His throat was killing him, even the small light coming in through the windows searing into his eyes.

"Why would I ever work with you, the place I saw you was before I was forced into the sewer by the Strong Arm Alchemist, then I woke up here to try and purge this place as well." Scars eyes never left Edward, the hatred still burning brightly in them.

"Just… give it up Scar… this world isn't corrupt, at least not in the ways you think…" Edward's thought trailed off, the light coming in from the windows finally starting to dim while his chest heaved for a breath. "I'll get out… as soon as I figure out how…" His knees lost all of their strength, leaving the room to spin around him before his head cracked against the floor once again. Darkness finally consumed the pain, driving it back into a corner while it dragged the boy under to its familiar cold.

* * *

><p>Update: I've gone through and changed the chapters around a little bit, not much but enough for now.<p> 


	14. Running Away From The Questions

Oh geeze, it's been a while. Sorry guys, hit a bit of a wall w/ writers block, but I think I'm good now.

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><p>Ed's POV<p>

Apparently it was too much to ask to not wake up to the too white walls of a hospital room. Even worse, they'd decided it was a good idea to leave me utterly alone and drugged up on something pretty quality.

Or at least… seeing as there wasn't any feeling in the back of my head, it had better be.

Whatever they'd decided to use, it was annoying as hell. Getting a valid thought through was a fight, and holding onto it long enough to act upon it was next to impossible by that point. All I knew was Scar was still in this world, and they didn't have a chance if he ever got loose again.

Either Bones or Booth hadn't had the smallest say in how they kept me down, or they'd been in worse condition than I had thought. At the very least I had my plan for now, I had to get the hell out of this shrinking room with its blinding, whining lights, and try to work these drugs out of my system to get some sense of reasonable thought other than this aching pain everywhere but my head and every single thing other than what I needed to be thinking about.

Actually realizing that a nurse or Booth or someone else had been dumb enough to leave clothes sitting in my room was pretty great, shrugging off the fact that it had taken several minutes to figure that out was easy enough. _"I'm a state alchemist, let me make a mistake for once."_ The muttered words broke the stark silence of the room before it even registered that they'd come out of my mouth. For some reason I actually felt the need to defend myself against that… _damn this pain medication is really screwing with my head. _

"_Okay, okay, Edward you've got this, let's get the hell out of the hospital before they come back with more drugs and way too many questions for it to be good."_ The always familiar but far too loud clap as I tried to get the right idea in my head of how I was getting out of this stupid room and onto the ground outside without anyone noticing.

The jump in time from actually standing in the over white room to looking at the perfectly resealed wall was obviously from the drugs kicking in. With the lack of new soreness from a fall anywhere it was clear I'd succeeded in making an at least manageable slide down the few stories that I traveled.

Still congratulating myself for my amazing escape from the completely unguarded hospital and holding the bundle of clothes that I'd swiped so skillfully close, I ducked into the nearest alleyway to get changed. By no means was Edward Elric going to be walking around in hospital clothes for longer than he needed too, or at least sleeping off some drugs in a tree or bench in them.

* * *

><p>FBI Interrogation Room<p>

Booth, still on edge, but unharmed unlike his teenage charge, stared at the man who was responsible for causing such chaos and destruction with only his bare hands. Even separated by a pane of bullet proof and one way glass the agent still felt threatened.

'Scar' was all they could call him by now, he refused to speak a single word after his fight with Ed had ended, not giving a single reaction to anything that happened. His hands were firmly handcuffed behind him, no one wanting to take a risk after they saw the damage done to the floor at the Jeffersonian.

Trying to think was impossible, especially with Bones pacing back and forth behind him and trying to figure out things for herself. There were too many questions floating out there, and no answers at all to be seen. Ed was down and out for the count; apparently he'd taken a few pretty nasty hits during that fight… or show of power between the two, whatever it had been.

On top of that, they'd been told that before they'd found him, probably before he'd been locked up Edward had come in contact with something that had messed up his immune system badly. They had yet to settle on exactly what he'd caught yet, wanting to sort it down to the exact strain if they could to help the teen recover from something affecting him far more than it should be.

Of course this only added to the fretting Temperance was doing. She had already been freaked out watching the sparks show between the kid they had only just dragged out of a pool of his own blood and some man who's eyes matched that color perfectly. Now of course she was trying to rationalize it to herself, everything from electrical surges to hallucinations caused by inhaling some spore off of the bones she'd been looking at during that time.

Booth had had enough of that, tuning her out while he tried to convince himself that 'Scar' couldn't see through the glass any more than he could shoot a bullet through it, that his beyond creepy crimson eyes only so happened to be fixed directly on him.

Thankfully, his phone rang to distract him from the would be magician or at least one hell of a good pyrotechnics staring back at him from the glass.

Unfortunately, it was with more bad news for him.

He grabbed onto Bones' wrist before just tugging her along while he listened to the rather hurried and stuttered message from the nurse who had been given the unfortunate task of calling him. She finally got out the words, letting him snap closed the phone as he now tried to find the right words to tell his partner what had happened. "Bones… Ed's disappeared… they can't find him anywhere, he's just up and vanished."

At that she was the one to start dragging him out of the building,

"Then we have to go find him."

* * *

><p>Whoo, okay, probably sucks but you can't say I didn't try.<p>

Thanks for reading!


	15. Falling From Trees Is Bad For YourHealth

Yep, sorry for being kinda bad at this, but, an update is an update I guess.

* * *

><p><span>Somewhere in Washington, D.C. <span>

Ed let out a low groan as he leaned against the side of a building, pressing both hands over his eyes before sinking down to the ground and cradling his head. His head felt like it was cracking open, every light stabbing into his brain and only furthering the pain that was already there.

A sound echoing down the alleyway pushing him back onto his feet, dragging a few steps before leaning heavily against the wall. He was really wishing for that pain medication now, hissing a few curses under his breath as he continued walking slowly. Pressing his right hand against his forehead earned a short sigh of relief, the cool metal feeling heavenly against burning skin. Aches and pains sent him pausing again, struggling to get a deeper breath so that he could keep walking.

His deep breaths only made things worse, his gut sending a stabbing pain up his spine and adding more pain to his already multiplying headache. Gagging, he struggled to keep his stomach from heaving and losing what was left of his last meal. Seconds passed before this time he couldn't fight it down, stumbling a few paces before trying to block out the horrid taste, smell and sound that came along with him being sick. The acid stung an already sore throat and almost pushing him to vomit all over again.

"Fuck…" Was the first phrase that the teen muttered, "What the hell happened… I did _not _do this in just a fight." Already his mind was reeling to try and figure out what had taken place to cause this, not even considering the cup he'd swiped off of some man's table while he'd been too busy with a call on his far too tiny and portable phone to notice.

His footsteps fell far too loud on a silent street. He regretted not keeping track of the too large shoes he had snatched, the pair disappearing sometime during one of the blackouts he was nearly constantly dealing with. Waking up somewhere different from where his eyesight had faded out was unnerving enough, but with more pain than he had had beforehand nearly sent him back to the hospital for help.

Not like it was very likely that he could find his way back to the hospital as he was, he couldn't even figure out how to get anywhere by the street signs he couldn't remember more than a few seconds. Any attempt to use alchemy was only rewarded with a few sparks that stung his eyes and a no reaction beyond that.

Broken hacking interrupted the brooding over his loss of alchemy, not even getting close to the fact he was nearly helpless if he ever did manage to get close to Scar. Again it wasn't like he had a chance of finding wherever they were keeping the man; even if he managed to get close the guards would have him on the ground within moments of getting nearby.

For now Edward only wanted to curl up somewhere and get some sleep to get away from all of this pain. Maybe he could sleep it all away so that it couldn't catch up with him anymore.

Crawling up the tree was probably a mistake, but for now it was a mistake that he was more than happy to make. The curses and expected but incredibly unwanted retching while leaning precariously over a branch only helped to speed along the snooze that was so greatly wanted.

The alchemy-less alchemist wedged himself firmly in a decent sized fork between two branches, only hoping that he wouldn't fall out or be sick anytime soon. A nearly sleepless rest of the night continued to pass him by, short strings of thought lasting for a few seconds before they would fade off into the haze of his headache.

Early morning came along with the same people up awake at that ungodly time. Health nuts and women looking to lose that last few pounds came running and jogging along, a few stopping to rest under Ed's tree from the barely risen sun as they struggled to catch their breath from pushing just a little too hard the last hundred feet or so.

A few people glanced up to see a calmly snoring kid above them and merely shrugged it off. A young man forced out of the house with his girlfriend for a 'couple's run' in the morning was the one to actually try and figure out a way to get the boy's attention. The idea of climbing the tree did not appeal to the already breathless youth in the least, a thin broken off branch served as a good way to quite literally poke the boy awake.

Unfortunately for Ed it worked, rousing him out of his careful position and causing him to topple quite gracelessly onto the ground. The collision only drew a short cry from the teen, not even bothering to get off of the ground by that point in time. That drew quite quickly a rather small crowd of runners and assorted joggers around there to try and figure out what had happened and why there was a kid lying nonresponsive on the grass.

Soon enough there had already been several calls for help while others tugged off their jackets before folding them up and tucking them under the boy's head like the operators had instructed.

From that time on a large part of the crowd dispersed, seeing no point in sticking around to watch over a boy that had help on the way and miss more of their morning runs, a few staying close by to make sure that he would be found and stay safe until that help came.

* * *

><p><span>With Booth and Bones <span>

Temperance continued to pace back and forth the empty hospital room while Booth continued his talk with the nurses and doctor who had been in charge of the missing boy. Each of them swore up and down that he had been unconscious and in no condition to be running away even if he had woken up.

A third nurse was hardly there for a few seconds, passing the doctor, whom then passed to Booth, a clipboard with several papers held fast onto it. Of course the scrawled words made no sense to the agent and after waving off the doctor's apologies for not realizing that it was such a simple disease to be affecting the teen so severely.

It took her a few minutes of flicking through the chart to actually settle on the words scrawled on the last page, identifying the disease that Ed had contracted.

She tugged lightly on Booth's sleeve, trying to get his attention before she would start talking. The moment he looked over from carefully studying the wall she started, "It was no wonder that he didn't show any symptoms until now, it can take weeks for Infectious Mononucleosis to make itself shown in any sort of reaction in the body, he may have shown small signs before now but really… it could have just been what he thought was a cold, or a reaction to his blood loss or-"

"Bones." Booth quickly cut her off of her rambling, not in any mood to listen now to something he didn't understand. "What is the English name for what he has not the squint name."

Temperance took less than a moment to respond, "Mono Booth, Ed's come down with Mono."

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><p>Well… um, sorry for them still being so short, I'm afraid that I can't do much better than this…<p>

Reviews if you'd be so kind, I'd love to know what you think.


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